Director Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Vice Chancellor of Marine Science, University of California-San Diego

Public Lecture Monday, April 1, 2019

4:00 – 5:00 pm Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute 5600 US 1 North, Ft. Pierce, FL 34946

About the lecture: The past few years have seen an explosion of new technologies for observing the ocean: new autonomous vehicles for seafloor mapping and ocean sampling; new acoustic, image and genomic sensors for biology that could be deployed long term at ocean sites to see changes in ecosystems. Both national and international organizations have realized that these new developments represent opportunities, but also challenges. For example, many of these sensors, platforms and systems are generating so much data that we need to develop new strategies for analyzing the data and making sense of what we see. Oceanographers have begun to work with data scientists and companies to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to large data sets. This ocean of data is also causing scientists to embrace different paradigms for solving ocean science problems. In response, the UN has begun planning for 2021-2030 as the International Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

About our speaker: Dr. Margaret Leinen is the Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Vice Chancellor for Marine Science of the University of California – San Diego. She has a BS in Geology is from University of Illinois, an MS in Geological Oceanography from Oregon State University and a PhD in Oceanography from University of Rhode Island. She is a researcher in paleo-oceanography and paleo-climatology as well as the biogeochemistry of the ocean. She was one of the first to identify the importance of biogenic and eolian contributions to the trace element geochemistry of deep sea sediments. She also worked on deep sea hydrothermal systems and discovered the first hydrothermal vents on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the current site of NSF’s Ocean Observatory Initiative Regional Cabled Observatory. Dr. Leinen has led many national and international efforts related to her science. She served on the Steering Committee of the Joint Global Ocean Flux program, an initiative of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) that defined the relationship between carbon fluxes in the ocean and the ecosystems of the ocean. For that program she was co-chair of the 7 cruise, 70 principal investigator, National Science Foundation study of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that defined the relationship between carbon flux and El Nino conditions in that critical region. She also served as the Vice-Chair of the parent IGBP effort of ICSU, fostering interdisciplinary study of atmospheric, terrestrial and oceanic carbon fluxes and their relationship to climate.

Dr. Leinen led two other major oceanographic institutions before coming to UC San Diego. Dr.

Oceanography in the next decade: where will new ways to study the ocean lead us?

Leinen led Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute as Vice Provost for Marine Programs, and the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography as Vice Provost for Marine Programs. At UC San Diego and her previous administrative positions she has had cross-campus responsibility for major environmental initiatives bringing social sciences, arts and humanities together with natural sciences and engineering. She successfully developed cross-university interdisciplinary initiatives in these fields including programs that focused on making joint faculty appointments successful.

Dr. Leinen served as the Assistant Director for Geosciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) between 2000 and 2007. The Geosciences Directorate funds research in ocean, atmospheric and earth science in the United States. During her time in US government, Leinen co-chaired the National Science and Technology Council’s Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology which produced the first US government interagency plan for ocean research. She also served as the Chair, and then Vice-Chair of the US Global Change Research Program, the interagency body responsible for coordinating all federal investments in climate and global change.

Under Leinen’s leadership NSF committed to funding the first NSF ice-strengthened oceanographic ship (the R/V Sukuliaq), the transformation of the ocean drilling program to the a fully internationally funded activity, the transformative Ocean Observatory Initiative. She also initiated the first permanent cross-Directorate program, Coupled Human and Natural Systems, jointly funded by Geosciences, Biosciences, and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences. Leinen has been committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in science. While at NSF, Leinen initiated the first formal program for equity, diversity and inclusion in the Geosciences: Opportunities to Enhance the Diversity of the Geosciences.

Dr. Leinen was President of the American Geophysical Union from 2015-2016, the largest geoscience society in the world with over 60,000 members. Under her leadership AGU began major initiatives in to bring environmental aspects of health into the Union and to bring AGU journals into green and gold open access. Dr. Leinen is also the Vice-Chair of the Research Board of the $500M Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative started in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She has also served as the President of The Oceanography Society and chaired the Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She serves on numerous boards and international committees in leadership positions, including multiple boards that bring academic and business sectors together to focus on the effective transfer of academic research to the private sector. Leinen has extensive international experience as a scientist, as a university administrator and as Assistant Director for Geosciences of NSF. She is currently serving as a Science Envoy for the US Department of State focusing on the ocean for Latin America and the Pacific. She was appointed to that position under both the Obama and Trump administrations. Dr. Leinen also spent time in the private sector as part of both for-profit and non-profit startups.

Dr. Leinen is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of America and the California Academy of Sciences. She has been awarded Distinguished Alumni awards by all three universities at which she received degrees.

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